The first 48 hours: what to do when your intimate images are shared without consent

The hours after you discover that intimate images of you are circulating are disorienting. Your instinct may be to make it all disappear immediately, or to stop looking altogether. Both are understandable. This list is here so that you do not have to think clearly to act well. Work through it in order, with someone beside you if you can.

1. Document before you delete

Evidence is the foundation of every removal request, police report and lawsuit. Before you report anything, capture it.

• Screenshot the post, the comments and the profile that shared it, with the URL and the date and time visible.
• Copy the exact URLs into a document. Note the platform, the username and any identifying details.
• If the material was sent to you directly, save the messages and headers rather than forwarding them.
• Do not create or save new copies of any image of a minor. Document URLs and usernames only, and report to NCMEC's CyberTipline.

2. Report to every platform where it appears

Every major platform has a dedicated report path for non-consensual intimate imagery, separate from general harassment reporting. Use it. Under the federal Take It Down Act, covered platforms must remove reported nonconsensual intimate imagery within 48 hours of a valid request, so note the time you submitted each report.

Then block re-uploads. If you were an adult in the images, StopNCII.org creates a digital fingerprint of the images on your own device, without uploading them, so participating platforms can detect and block them. If you were under 18, use Take It Down from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

3. Ask search engines to delist

Removing a post does not remove it from search results right away. Google accepts removal requests for non-consensual explicit personal images, including fakes, through a dedicated form. Request delisting for your name and any variations.

4. Lock down your accounts

• Change the passwords on your email and cloud storage first, then social accounts, and turn on two-factor authentication everywhere.
• Review connected apps and logged-in devices and sign out of anything you do not recognize.
• Consider setting accounts to private and pausing public posting while the situation stabilizes.

5. Tell one person

Shame thrives in silence, and the person who did this is counting on yours. Choose one trusted person, or call the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative helpline, and say the sentence out loud. You will need a witness, a note-taker and someone to make tea. That person does not need to see the images to help you.

6. Decide about police and lawyers, on your timeline

Most states criminalize nonconsensual distribution, and reporting creates a record that matters later even if no charges follow. Bring your documentation and ask for a report number. A lawyer can send takedown demands, pursue civil claims and advise on protective orders. CCRI maintains a referral list of attorneys experienced in these cases. You do not have to decide any of this in the first 48 hours; you do have to keep the evidence.

7. Protect your mind

Stop refreshing. Hand monitoring to your trusted person, or set one time a day to check. Eat, sleep if you can, and move your body. The intensity of the first days is not what the rest of your life will feel like. Thousands of people have stood where you are standing and gone on to live full, public, joyful lives.